Netflix's Matthew Perry Docuseries Tells a Sad Story Honestly. His Prayer for Fame Is the Warning.

The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the section marked as opinion.

Netflix this week released "The One About Matthew Perry," a three-part docuseries about the "Friends" star's life and his long fight with addiction. The series premiered Tuesday, Oct. 27, and the timing was deliberate. On Oct. 28, 2023, Perry was found dead in his hot tub, having drowned with illegally sourced ketamine in his system, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was 54.

The series is directed by Mary Robertson, who also made the Emmy-nominated "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV." She told the Times that in this project "the common enemy is a disease, not a person." She also said she believed some of Perry's comic talent "was a God-given gift," though she added that he worked hard at it. The remaining "Friends" stars and series creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane declined to participate, according to the Times.

Who tells the story

With the famous cast absent, the story is carried by people most viewers have never heard of. The central voice is Mia Perry Bowick, Perry's younger half-sister and a therapist, Variety's review says. She is joined by Perry's close friends Roger Castillo and David Pressman. The Times reports that Bowick became a licensed psychotherapist because of her brother's struggles.

The Hollywood Reporter's chief television critic, Daniel Fienberg, called the series "a sincere, generally non-exploitative examination of addiction and celebrity." He was less kind about its length. His bottom line: "A fine feature-length doc unnecessarily extended into a three-hour docuseries." He also noted that the series is not a salacious account of Perry's death and the criminal investigations that followed, in his review.

Variety's critic described it as a "crushingly sad story of a man whose talent, humor and success were not enough to overcome a chronic disease." The review traces Perry's addiction from prescribed painkillers he first took after an on-set injury while filming the 1997 film "Fools Rush In," through many cycles of relapse, detox and sobriety, and a sepsis-induced coma in 2018 caused by his use of opiates, Variety reported.

Some of the hardest material comes in Perry's own recorded voice. "God, you can do anything you want to me; just please make me famous," Perry admits he prayed as a young man. He got "Friends" shortly afterward and noted ruefully that "God didn't forget" about the first part of that prayer, according to Variety.

Perry told much of his own story in his 2022 best-selling memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing," the Times noted. The new series adds the view from the people who loved him and watched him suffer.

Dock Line has covered other recent losses in Hollywood, including Patrick Stewart, Star Trek's Captain Picard, Dies at 86.

Opinion: He prayed for fame and got it, and that prayer is the warning

I have not reviewed the series as a critic would, and I will leave the question of its length to the professionals. What I want to talk about is that prayer, because it is the most honest thing in the whole project.

A young man asked God for fame and said he would accept anything in exchange. Millions of young people pray some version of that prayer every day, though most of them pray it to a phone instead of to God. Perry got exactly what he asked for. He got the biggest sitcom in the world, the money, and the love of strangers. None of it could save him.

I do not believe God sends addiction as a punishment for a foolish prayer, and Perry's line was a rueful joke, not a theology. But the joke carries a truth Scripture put plainly long ago: "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Fame is a hard god. It demands everything and gives back applause.

Robertson calls addiction the enemy, and on that she is right. Addiction is a real bondage, and the people who loved Perry were fighting something bigger than one bad choice. But Christians should say the whole truth. Addiction is a disease in its grip and a sin in its idolatry. It promises relief and delivers chains. Compassion for the addict and honesty about the drug are not opposites. They belong together.

It is also worth noting who carries this story. Not the stars, not the network, not the creators. A younger sister who became a therapist because she watched her brother suffer, and two old friends who knew him before he was famous. Those are the people who stay when the cameras leave. Every family that has fought this fight knows who they are.

Perry chose to tell his story in public, in a best-selling memoir and in recorded interviews. That honesty was real and good, and it should be remembered alongside the jokes. The lesson for the rest of us is simple. Pray for the right things. Ask God for a clean heart before you ask for a famous name. If you or someone you love is caught in addiction, do not wait for the bottom. Tell someone today.